NAMBUCCA VALLEY muso, Matilda Sutherland launched her Holy Water music video on Sunday 17 July to accompany the EP released earlier in the year.

“The video was directed by my friend Ahmed Coshnow, and I worked on the creative direction alongside Joseph Leone,” the 26-year-old Country Punk singer told News Of The Area.

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“With such a small team we were all very involved in the process.

“I’m based in Melbourne, so we filmed it in the Melbourne CBD, at The Tote in Collingwood, and down on the Mornington Peninsula.

“Initially we were going to include only the city shots and some footage from a gig we had last year, but there was no ‘Holy Water’ present.

“We wanted to tell the story of the music – which is about finding ‘solace in the deep blue’, and about escaping the city to an extent.

“This is where the idea to move from the cityscapes into the beach shots was formed.

“I’d been to Blairgowrie jumping rock a couple months prior and thought it would be a breathtaking spot to shoot.

“We also ended up redoing the gig footage at our EP launch in April, and I think the atmosphere at that gig transferred to the film beautifully.

“All up the process took about eight months.”

Matilda’s genre is likened to alt-country, although she describes it as country punk or just straight up rock.

She’s heavily inspired by her parents’ musical style, who’ve played variations of folk, rock and surf rock over the years.

“I never realised how great an influence my mum, Rosie Sutherland, had until I listened to her music earlier this year.

“I was kind of gobsmacked by how similar our sound is, though it’s probably no surprise to onlookers,” she laughed.

Matilda grew up in Nambucca Heads, as her parents moved from Wollongong when she was aged five.

“We lived in town and went to the beach most days after school at Nambucca Heads Public School (graduating in 2013).

“That time is strangely earmarked by the verandah Dad built out the back of the house – it was the centre of a lot of my childhood – helping him build it (in small ways), and watching the house change over the course of ten years.

“A couple years after that was finished, we moved to a property at Tewinga, where my parents still live now.”

Growing up Matilda would go to her mum’s gigs and band rehearsals and was generally surrounded by her parents’ muso friends.

“I learnt little pieces of bass and drums from them, too.

“Nambucca High had a decent music department, and our year was a particularly dedicated crew of musicians. We all played together in bands and duos throughout high school.”

In that time she also had singing lessons with Lea Gillard at Nambucca Youthie.

“I really treasured that space to go and hang out, play around in the recording studio and practice using microphones.

“My younger sister Josie is a talented pianist, and so we paired up to play at pubs in the valley, and to busk at events.

“When I go home for summer, we still have family jams at my parents’ piano – we can sing the Beatles and Johnny Cash for hours.”

Matilda looks back on growing up in the valley and says she now feels lucky to have had this country grounding.

“When you’re young it’s often hard to see the good parts if you’re busy dreaming of the “bigger” and “better” big-city life – but now that I’ve been away from the valley for about nine years I really cherish the time I get to spend up there.

“That was also a big part of the Holy Water release and my move back to rock music in general, as it was written mostly during the Covid lockdowns here in Melbourne when I was desperately craving the beach and the bush, and connection to people.”

Matilda will be relocating to the EU in August to live and study for six months.

By Andrea FERRARI